Department of Social Sciences
Guidelines for writing academic assignments at
undergraduate level
September 2009
Guidelines for writing academic assignments at undergraduate level
Introduction
Assignments in the form of essays, reports, reflective journals, observations and
theses are central to the evaluation of students’ performance at college. Unlike exams,
continuous assessment gives you the opportunity to research a topic extensively,
organise your material, plan carefully and write up the essay in a less stressful
situation. A much higher quality of work is therefore expected. While the proverbial
“person in the street” could write an intelligent and well-argued essay, your essay
must go a stage further and show familiarity with theoretical concepts, frames of
references and research.
These guidelines are designed to help you produce high quality written assignments
and they focus particularly on essay writing (see separate guidelines for dissertations,
reflective journals and portfolios).
Getting started
Define the problem The first task is to define the problem. Underline the key words in
the title and if necessary clarify with the Lecturer and/or consult a dictionary or key
textbook. Clear definition of terms is a hallmark of academic writing.
Consider the instructions carefully. Clearly, an essay requiring ‘comparison’ would be
very different to one involving ‘discussion’. An assignment that does not meet the
requirements of the title cannot hope to achieve a good mark and may even result in a
failed assignment. Consider the following frequently used instructions:
Analyse:
examine in detail, showing pros and cons
Assess:
weigh up the value of and give a judgement
Compare:
show the similarities between two given items
Contrast:
point out all the differences between items
Criticise:
show both the good and bad points
Define:
give the exact meaning
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Describe:
give a detailed account of
Explain:
make really clear, possibly giving and reason
Explore:
examine from various standpoints, showing the implications
Outline:
give the main points of
Summarise: give a brief account of
(Rose, 2001, pp. 90-91).
Define the limits. Time spent at the start in limiting the problem is important. A
problem is limited by reducing the scope of the investigation (for example, the essay
will focus on services for under twos in Dublin rather than all preschool age children)
not by omitting relevant information. Unrelated information is likely to lose you
marks.
Plan the Assignment. Before you begin to write you should have a clear framework
that provides a structure for both the writer and the reader. Remember assignments are
marked on structure and content. All assignments have (a) an introduction, (b) a
body and (c) a conclusion.
(a) The introduction should indicate the problem and the main issues to be
addressed in the assignment. The introduction should not include details but
should serve as a map of what is to follow.
(b) The body of the assignment should present the evidence. Theories and
issues should be presented (with examples and comment where relevant) as
per instructions, for example, discuss/compare/ summarise.
A new paragraph or heading should be used for each new point.
(c) The conclusion should sum up the main points discussed with reference to
the problem set but should not be a repetition of material already covered.
Conclusions should be drawn based on the evidence/comment presented.
This standard format can be shortened to:

Say what you are going to do

Do it

Say what you have done
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Writing Style
Write in a simple, clear, precise style taking particular note of the following points:

Write impersonally, without using the word “I” or “he/she”. Instead use the
word “one”.

Be consistent by using the same tense throughout.

Clichés, jargon, colloquial speech and slang are not acceptable as academic
writing must be factual and precise. Keep your language specific. Precise,
scientific language allows clearer communication with your reader. Take for
example the two sentences below:
“B.F. Skinner experimentally investigated the effects of punishment and
concluded that, while effective as a means of controlling behaviour,
punishment may bring about negative consequences such as a generalised state
of fear in the organism.”
“A guy called B.F. Skinner got down to the business of looking into
punishment and figured out that it can work but also went on about the
down side being that it may make the person afraid.”

Accuracy is essential…
“recent research…” is better stated as “research since 2005…”
“some researchers have shown…” is better stated as “McNaughton and
Hughes (2001) have shown…”

Abbreviations such as e.g. and etc. are generally not acceptable. The word
should be written in full…. for example, not e.g.

Acronyms are acceptable if one has previously indicated the full meaning of
the acronym.
Thus, to use “DIT”, one must have initially used Dublin
Institute of Technology (DIT)

Spelling and grammatical errors are not acceptable and spelling/grammar
checkers and proof-reading should ensure a high level of accuracy

Thesauri are useful in helping you find just the right word for a sentence

Good punctuation enhances the clarity and readability of your assignment
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
Paragraphing sorts a piece of writing into sections and helps the reader
understand your meaning. Generally a new point requires a new paragraph
Paragraphs should be neither too long (check to see if you have more than one
point) or too short (one or two sentences).

Drafting and re-drafting is a vital part of academic writing and helps to tighten
the structure and content of your writing. You may need to add or delete
material as well as re-order material. It is best to leave some time between
reading drafts to ensure you will look at the work with a fresh eye. Much of
the incomprehensible writing one encounters can be prevented simply by rereading and re-drafting what has already been written. It may help to leave
something for a few days and to return to it with a fresh mind. Always rewrite your essays. Hemingway claimed to have re-written the ending to A
Farewell to Arms 39 times before he was satisfied with it! (Paris Review,
1958).
Presentation
Assignments should have a title page (a template for the title page is provided in
Appendix 1) and should include the following information:
Student’s Name
Lecturer’s Name
Course
Year
Subject
Submission Date
Word Count
Title of Assignment
Declaration of ownership
Assignments should be typed on A4 paper according to the following guidelines:
Style and Font: Times New Roman, Font size 12.
Spacing: The body of text should use 1.5 line spacing. Quotations, footnotes, tables
and figures and appendices require different spacing.
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Punctuation: No space before a full stop. Text resumes two spaces after a full stop.
No space before commas, colons or semi-colons. Text resumes one space after
commas, colons and semi-colons.
Justification: The text should be fully justified (straight edges on both left and right
sides of the text)
Margins: The usual margins recommended are 2.5 cm at the top, bottom and right side
of the page and 4cm at the left of the page
Pagination: Pages should be numbered starting with the first page of text. Title page is
not numbered
Marker’s Comments: A single clean page should be included at the back of the
assignment for the reader’s feedback
Submission of Assignments: Pages should be stapled with a single staple or paper
clip. Assignments should not be submitted in plastic pockets unless necessary for
large pieces of work.
Keep a copy or back-up file as all your assignments are retained by DIT for one year
after submission.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the deliberate use in a paper of material drawn from the work of another
person without acknowledgement and can lead to an assignment being failed outright.
To avoid plagiarising, either use your own words or acknowledge your source.
Every assignment requires a declaration to state that the work is the student’s own and
has not been copied from another person, either a student or published author and that
all materials (paper and electronic) have been referenced according to guidelines of
the Department of Social Sciences at DIT. The declaration of ownership should
accompany every assignment.
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Referencing
Academic writing requires that you read and cite the work of others. Any material that
is not your own must be sourced to the original author. Every book, article, thesis and
all electronic material that has been consulted and cited should be included in the
bibliography. Only material which is publicly available should be cited so lecture
notes, for example, should not be referenced. The use of quotations and references in
the text is followed up by a list of references, alphabetically presented at the end of
the work, which is known as the References. There are specific guidelines that you
must follow for referencing in the text and in the References section. The referencing
system adopted by the Department of Social Sciences is the American Psychological
Association Style, or APA Style.
What follows is a summary outline of the
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition. An
outline tutorial can be found at:
http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm
Referencing format to be used in Text
a) After a summary of an author’s work, or a reference to his/her work you must
insert the author’s surname and the date of publication.
(Murphy, 2004).
In the case of two authors, both are listed:
(Wilson & Thomas, 2009).
In the case of three to five authors, all authors should be listed the first time
the work is cited:
(O’Brien, Smith, Horgan, White & Dunphy, 2009).
As listing five authors would become quite cumbersome, after the first citation
you need only name the first author, followed by et al. (from the Latin,
meaning ‘and others’):
(O’Brien et al., 2009).
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When citing an author who has published two or more works in the same year, use
lower case letters (a, b, c) with the year to distinguish them:
The Department of Education and Science (2007a) has reported that …
b) If you are including the author’s name as part of your sentence you can put the date
in brackets after it as follows:
Murphy (2004) has argued that …
c) A straight forward quotation:
However, it has been noted that “this is a phenomenon which is not unique to
Ireland” (Murphy, 2004, p. 12).
d) When you are summarising someone else’s ideas:
Murphy (2004) has argued that it is not just Ireland that has experienced such
difficulties; other countries including Finland have also faced similar
economic problems.
If you are citing a number of works to support an argument or position, they should be
listed alphabetically, separated by a semi-colon:
A considerable number of researchers have reported similar findings (Barry,
1996; Doyle, 1998; Zacchus, 2004).
e) Say you are reading a book by Smith, and in Smith’s book there is a quote from
another book by Jones. You decide that you would like to include the quote by Jones
in your essay, but you haven’t read Jones’ original source. You present this kind of
material as follows:
More evidence to support this assertion has been presented by research in
North America, which concluded that 23% of women are likely to choose not
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to have children for a variety of reasons (Jones, as cited in Smith, 2005, pp.
254-256).
The page number given is the page number from the book by Smith from where you
got the quotation from Jones. Your bibliography will contain the book by Smith.
f) If referencing from a newspaper, follow the same format as above. If there is no
identifiable author, use the name of the newspaper, the date and page number if
required:
(The Irish Times, 19th January, 2005, p. 6)
g) Quotations
A short quotation of less than a line may be included in the body of the text in
quotation marks but if it is longer (typically, 40 words) start a new line and indent it.
All direct quotes must be single spaced and indented. This makes it easier for the
reader to establish what is sourced work and what is your own work. Include the page
number if using a direct quote:
Russell’s (1997) work on incest in South Africa confines itself to white incest
survivors. She notes:
a few women have made valiant efforts to bring this problem to public
attention over the past decade, but the handling of this crime [incest] is
still in the dark ages in South Africa compared with most Western
nations … [and] no adequate studies of the prevalence of incestuous
abuse have been conducted in South Africa (1997, p. 9).
h) Referencing Internet sites or online journals.
The suggested format for WWW page entries in the text is Constructor (person or
organisation), year, page no. [if given]:
Department of Health and Children (2006, p. 8).
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Many webpages do not contain page numbers. Try to include a marker to help your
reader find the relevant passage, for example a paragraph number: Department of
Justice, Equality and Law Reform (2009, para 121).
Referencing format to be used in the ‘References’ section
‘References’ is a list of all the sources you quoted or paraphrased to prepare your
paper. You should arrange entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name or, if
there is no author, by the first main word of the title. It should start on a separate page
at the end of your essay; label the page ‘References’, centred at the top of the page.
Use hanging indent paragraph style (align the first line with the left margin, and
indent all subsequent lines one tab space from the left margin). Type all authors’
names with the surname first, separated by a comma. Use only initials for the first and
middle names, and an ‘and’ before the last author's name.
Examples
(a) Books
The title of the publication should be italicised.
Green, G.D. (1991). Industrial Relations. (3rd ed.). London: Pitman.
Kessler, S. & Bayliss, F. (1985). Contemporary British Industrial Relations.
London: Macmillan.
Where an organization is the author,
Department of Education and Science. (1999). Etc.
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(b) Edited books
Where a book has been edited you must insert (ed.) (if there is only one editor) or
(eds.) (for two or more editors) after their names:
O’Connor, T. & Murphy, M. (Eds.). (2006). Social Care in Ireland: Theory,
policy and practice. Cork: CIT Press.
(c) Contributions in edited books
When quoting the work of a contributor to an edited book the following format should
be used:
Fuller, M. (1981). Young, female and black. In E. Cashmore & B. Troyna
(Eds.), Black Youth in Crises (pp. 47-72). London: Allen and Unwin.
(d) Journal articles
Labbé, J. (2005). Ambroise Tardieu: The man and his work on child
maltreatment a century before Kempe. Child Abuse and Neglect,
29(4), 311-324.
(e) Newspapers
Bloggs, J. (2008, September 1). Government at crossroads. Irish Times, p. 1.
(f) Websites and Online Journals
Websites
American Public Health Association. (n. d.). Some thoughts on the future of public
health. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from http://www.apha.org
Online Journals
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As with any published reference, the goals of an electronic reference are to credit the
author and to enable the reader to find the material. Where possible, cite the DOI
(digital object identifier). If there is no DOI, use the webpage URL.
For example, with a DOI:
Murphy, J. (2006). Tips to remember about allergy, asthma and immunology
[Online]. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, 24,
225-229. doi: 10.1037/0728-6133.24.2.225
Another example, no doi, so the URL is used instead:
Hemingway, E. (2007). The future of Irish social policy. Irish Journal of
Social Policy, 99, 423-455. Retrieved from
http://www.makeyupeywebsite.ie
(g) Theses
Eyre, J. (2004). The marketing of tulips in 17th Century Holland. PhD Thesis.
Utrecht University.
Confidentiality
Real names of clients, staff, agencies or locations should not be used in assignments
and any details, which might make it possible to identify any of the above, should be
avoided.
Special care must be taken if photos are used and permission from
client/parent/ guardian/agency must be obtained. A breach of confidentiality in a
written assignment may result in a failed assignment.
References
Barrass, R. (2005). Students must write: A guide to better writing in course-works
and examinations. 3rd edition. Routledge: London & New York.
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Cottrell, S. (2003). The Study Skills Handbook. 2nd edition. Palgrave: Basingstoke.
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Appendix 1: Assignment title page
Student’s Name:
Lecturer’s Name:
Course:
Year:
Subject:
Submission Date:
Word Count:
Title of Assignment:
Declaration of Ownership: I declare that the attached work is entirely my own and
that all sources have been acknowledged:
Signed:___________________________
Date:
___________________________
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